Does it work because you're taking advantage of a group of people who are extremely vulnerable to manipulation? People who already struggle with impulse control, who are prone to making bad financial decisions? The elderly, kids?
We have to escape this mentality that anything that makes money is valid, that the money itself is the validation of "rightness".
Some of us, just some think that maybe enterprises that prey on the vulnerable just don't deserve to be in business. Otherwise everything might as well be payday loans and online gambling. I'm not saying OP is definitely in that category, but I would encourage them to think long and hard about weather or not using dark patterns to goose their sales is really the kind of world we want to be fostering.
Hitting the nail on the head here-> know your target audience.
I think this is a gross over-exaggeration, otherwise dark patterns wouldn't work at the magnitude (majority of the buying population) they do.
I say this not disagreeing with your point:
> We have to escape this mentality that anything that makes money is valid, that the money itself is the validation of "rightness".
"Average" doesn't necessarily mean half way between two extremes - the average human might actually be all of:
- extremely vulnerable to manipulation
- struggling with impulse control
- prone to making bad financial decisions
- the elderly / kids (<16/>60)
Based on age demographics, rampant consumerism and social media addiction, especially in those age demographics, I'd be more inclined to guess the average human is all of those things.
I agree. But.
I run an online business. It's tough. I scrape by. GP noted that the skeezy popup "Boosted conversion rate meaningfully". So that's real money in GP's pocket that they presumably use to have a nicer life. At what cost? Some popup? I mean…
Would I take more money in my pocket? Boy, I'd like that. So far I haven't gone the skeezy popup route, but the day I try, and more money ends up in my pocket, it's gonna be hard to turn that thing off.
I'm not judging, is all I'm saying.
Silly obnoxious social proof popup is clearly on the ethical side in my view (my issue was never ethics, just that I personally find them very annoying). I'm not misleading anyone (it does in fact show real purchases) or forcing anyone to do anything. If that's the difference between you buying or not, I still feel perfectly comfortable that you made the choice of your own free will.
I would possibly be a terrible salesperson, because these all give me the ick. Your product should provide an offer of genuine value.
I guess it's the inevitable parable of anything started by '70s hippies: sooner or later, we all sell out.
Advertising should.be illegal.
I dislike advertising as much as the next guy but wouldn't go so far as making it illegal
Advertising is shitty but how would you realistically even make it illegal without violating free speech.
Also, advertising does have a good-faith purpose in functioning markets.
Failures in regulation IMO are mostly at entirely different levels.
E.g. monetization of public utilities and public space. Noise, brightness, and of course deceptive tactics could all be better regulated as well.
But advertising, including its diffusion into general pop culture and entertainment, is older than the printing press, and I think for a broad sense of "advertising", even a lot older.
Or only advertising in media?
Urban spaces? Sure I'd say, but what about your storefront?
Encouraging word of mouth?
And we already don't allow everything that is technically speech. Harassing people is already illegal, unless you're a corporation. Taking advantage of the vulnerable is already generally illegal, unless you're a corporation.
"You're never going to convince someone to stop doing something that is making them money." Reasonable, but I would soften from "never". There was less of it at one point—and it seems logical to guess we have less today than we'll have tomorrow. The main reason is likely that we simply didn't know about these tricks yet, but somewhere below that on the list of the reasons is that some people dropped off from doing it at lesser forms of misrepresentation. Or they made the case against it at work resulting in them either winning (and their projects perhaps did less well) or them losing and being overrun by those more willing. With losing possible also leading towards leaving, not getting promoted, or getting fired. This is just a way to say that there are people who do forgo money, they just might not be around or visible for various reasons. And, as implied by the difficulty of convincing people to not make money, their (former) coworkers prefer that on some level even if they don't believe they agree with stealing or lying. But losing or earning less money is not the same as having no choice.
Just another horror beyond our comprehension?